A Day Of Revelations
by shamelesslyromantic
Summary: On this normal school day, Alya learns some new information, and handles it like a champ. A sprinkling of DJWifi for added fluff.


_Author's Note:_

 _First story I've ever completed, so please be gentle. That being said, hope you enjoy this pile of fluff!_

* * *

 **A Day of Revelations**

Tap. Tap. Tap. Sigh. Tap. Tap. Longer sigh.

Alya tried valiantly to stay focused on Madame Bustier's voice and ignore her jittery best friend, but after ten minutes of Marinette's tapping and squirming, she was nearing the end of her rope. At least class was almost over. She wouldn't have to wait long to get to the bottom of the fidgeting.

Just then, Marinette turned slightly toward her and whispered, "Hey Alya, would you mind hanging back for a minute when break begins? I need to tell you something."

Alya was puzzled at the tension in her voice, but chose to just nod instead of pressing further.

A long few minutes later, the bell finally rang, signalling the start of break. Alya watched her classmates file out, chattering happily with one another. Once the room was empty, she got out of her chair and leaned against the desk facing Marinette. "So what's up, girl? What did you want to tell me?"

"Well… it's really more of a show than a tell…" She stood up, turned slightly away, and whispered, almost inaudibly, "Tikki, spots on!"

There was a bright flash of pink, then silence.

* * *

Blank. Alya's mind was completely blank as she sat there with her eyes blown wide, gaping at the superhero who stood where her best friend had been moments before.

Several more seconds passed.

Marinette fidgeted nervously. Alya hadn't moved or blinked in almost a minute and a half, seemingly frozen in shock. "Alya? You okay in there?" Dropping her transformation, she reached out a tentative hand to tap her friend on the shoulder. A red streak in her peripheral vision told her that Tikki must have decided to hide for the time being.

Alya blinked, emerging from her daze with a little shake of her head. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before suddenly exclaiming, "Oh mY GOD! I can't believe it! It's been you all this time? My best friend is a _superhero_?"

Marinette nodded sheepishly. Alya blew out a heavy breath as she tried to wrap her mind around this new information. "Holy— so this whole time— with the spots and the red and the— it's been you and I— I can't process this. I've been so blind. How did I not know?!"

Marinette chuckled in relief, glad that the initial shock seemed to have passed. She moved to sit on the desk, bracing herself for the inevitable barrage of words.

The reporter did not disappoint, starting to pace in frustration.

"I've known you for _four years_ and I've been chasing down your, your polka-dotted other self for just as long and I never knew? How is that possible? I'm literally your best friend! I'm supposed to know you inside and out! I mean, I knew Marinette was amazing, what with you being class president and always standing up to Chloe and stuff, so it totally makes sense that you're Ladybug too! How did I miss that? You and Ladybug even _look_ exactly the same— your hair and eyes don't change at all, and we spend almost every minute of every day together exc—ohh" Her eyes widened again as she was struck by a second realization. "Oh my gosh that's why you were never there during akuma attacks! I thought you were just scared and didn't want to make a big deal of it, except, y-you were there, just not by my side in the way I expected you to because you were busy fighting a crazy supervillain who… isn't actually defeated yet, so wait, why are you telling me this now again?" Alya paused to suck some much-needed air into her lungs and wait for an answer.

"Chat Noir and I were talking last night and decided it was time to reveal ourselves to each other, since the akuma victims are getting more dangerous and we want to be prepared in case something bad happens."

"Wait, really? You're finally going to reveal?" Marinette nodded again. Alya squealed and flung her arms around the other girl, hopping up next to her. "Girl, that's fantastic! Not the part about dangerous akumas, of course, but the rest of it. You guys are going to become an even better team after this!"

"Yeah, and he also told me that his best friend had recently discovered his identity. I figured that if Chat Noir's best friend knows, you deserve to know too. Chat and I aren't going to tell each other who we are until this weekend, but I hated lying to you longer than absolutely necessary, so I decided to tell you now instead of afterward."

Alya smiled at Marinette, too touched for words, until a thought suddenly struck her and she snorted.

Marinette looked at her, puzzled. "What's that all about?"

"Oh nothing much," she snickered. "I was just thinking about how glad I am that you have a hard time lying to me, and then I realized that for the first time ever, your pain is actually making me happy and that's really rather ridiculous."

Marinette smothered a laugh of her own and pretended to be offended. "Humph. Some best friend you are. I just told you my biggest secret and all you're doing is laughing at how much I've suffered these past three years." Finally Marinette couldn't hold back anymore and collapsed into giggles of her own.

When their laughter had died down, Alya nudged the other girl with her shoulder. "Are you planning to tell Nino and Adrien?"

Marinette pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I hadn't really thought about that yet. I'll have to check with Tikki first, but I definitely think I'd like to tell them eventually. I'm just not sure when, though, because I don't wanna wait too long but at the same time, the more people that know, the more likely it is that Hawkmoth will find out."

"Who's Tikki?"

Marinette glanced over at one of the many empty chairs in the room. "You should probably come out now, Tikki."

A tiny red… _thing_ suddenly flew out from behind the chair and hovered in front of Alya's face. "Hello! I'm Tikki. I'm a kwami, and I help Marinette turn into Ladybug," it said in a high-pitched voice.

"A kwami?" Alya questioned. "Are you some kind of fairy or something? How does that work?"

Tikki answered, "I'm more like a goddess than a fairy, really. My magic pairs with Marinette's earrings - her miraculous - to transform her into a superhero and give her the heightened abilities she needs for battle."

"That's so cool!" Alya exclaimed, eager to learn more. "What about—" The bell rang, cutting off her question. Tikki dove into Marinette's purse as the first of the other students started to trickle in.

"I can't meet up tonight to talk about it, but I promise I'll answer all of your questions as soon as I can," Marinette told Alya in an apologetic tone of voice. Alya nodded understandingly, trying not to let Marinette see her disappointment at having to wait.

* * *

Alya was going mad. She'd been a distracted mess all afternoon, unable to focus on anything but the revelation Marinette had dumped on her. The more she thought about it, the more she was struck with the need to share her feelings with someone other than Marinette, who'd had four years to get used to her super-heroism. She needed to talk to someone, _anyone_ , or she just knew she'd explode.

She glanced at the clock, counting the minutes until she could finally escape. But who to tell? She glanced around the room, dismissing each of her classmates in turn until her gaze landed on Nino. _Perfect._ Marinette was planning to tell him and Adrien later anyway, and he was usually good at staying calm about things. Satisfied with her choice, she returned to taking notes, finding herself a lot more capable of focusing now that her dilemma had been resolved.

* * *

The bell rang and everyone began packing up and leaving. Alya lagged behind on purpose, knowing that Nino always took an eternity to get his stuff together. When he finally finished and was heading out the door, she stopped him.

"Nino, I need to talk to you, like right now." Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed his arm and dragged him down the hall toward an empty classroom, ignoring his confused exclamations. When they got inside, she let go and turned to face him.

"Alya, dude, you okay? What's wrong?" Nino asked, concern evident in his voice. A distraught Alya was not a normal occurrence.

"Nino, I… I need to tell you something." Then she hesitated. Would he even believe her? And besides, this wasn't exactly her secret to tell. On the other hand, if she didn't tell someone she would go insane and she knew Marinette would never ask her to keep this secret at the expense of her sanity, and Nino was going to find out eventually anyway. Mind made up, she stared at the ground as she continued. "It's a little… hard to explain, but I need you to believe I'm telling the truth."

"Hey." A tentative touch on her arm made her glance up to meet Nino's concerned gaze. "If you don't feel ready to tell me, that's okay, dude. I don't want you feeling pressured to say something you aren't ready for."

"No, I need to get this off my chest. I'm going insane keeping this to myself." Alya paused again, searching for the right words.

Nino's expression softened as he searched her face, looking for a sign that he was right about what she was trying to say. "Alya, I—"

"Marinette is Ladybug!" she blurted out.

A flash of disappointment crossed his features, but it was gone before she could notice, replaced with a look of disbelief. "Is that it? That's what had you so worked up today?" he asked, incredulous.

"What do you mean, _is that it_? This is huge! How can you be so calm about this?" Alya had expected him to be cool about it but this complete lack of surprise threw her for a loop.

"Dude, I figured it out ages ago. I thought you knew too and just decided not to say anything. You really had no idea?"

Alya gaped at him in shock. "I don't believe it. I can't believe it. You KNEW? And you didn't _tell_ me? I get _her_ not telling me because she's the actual superhero but you could have told me! I could have helped protect her! I've been hunting down her identity for ages! What if I accidentally uncovered her while livestreaming and she never spoke to me again? You could have been responsible for the end of the best friendship this world has ever seen!"

Nino scoffed. "Best friendship ever? Puh-lease, my bro Adrien and I are way tighter than you two. I've kept more secrets for him than you could ever imagine."

"First of all, you're totally wrong, but that's not what's important right now!" Alya huffed in irritation. "You should have told me! Even ignoring the part where I'm your friend and we don't keep secrets from each other, I could have helped steer attention away from her real identity. I could have helped her!" She looked almost murderous as she paced for the second time that day.

"I couldn't tell you, Adrien swore me to secrecy! He knew I'd figured out both of their identities and he was fine with me knowing about him but he didn't want Ladybug to panic at the thought of someone knowing who both of them are because if that got out, I'd be a target for Hawkmoth." Alya suddenly jerked around to stare at him, but Nino didn't notice and continued to defend himself. "Plus, neither of them knows who the other person is yet and you know how Marinette is about keeping her promises, she would have hated to think that someone else found out her identity before she had a chance to share it with her partner like they had agreed." Nino turned hopeful eyes to the brunette, only to find her already watching him. "What?"

"What did you just say?"

"Marinette is really serious about her promises?" Nino asked, confused.

"No, the part before that."

"What, the part about me becoming a target if anyone found out I know about Adr—," he realized what he had let slip and paled.

"Adrien is Chat Noir?" Alya's voice was dangerously calm.

"N-no! That's not what I meant! I just meant that Adrien knows I know who Chat Noir is, not that _Adrien_ is Chat Noir, that would be ridiculous." Nino's eyes were wide with panic as he tried to backtrack and undo the damage he'd inadvertently caused.

Comprehension dawned on Alya's face and she let out a short, humorless laugh. "Adrien is Chat Noir. Actual sunshine child, Adrien _frickin'_ Agreste is a pun-loving, mask-wearing, part-cat superhero. Of course! Because who else could it _possibly_ be? How else could this whole mess resolve itself except with some sort of twisted romantic polygon? Adrien is Chat Noir, and Chat Noir likes—no, loves Ladybug, which means Adrien loves Ladybug and Ladybug is Marinette, who likes Adrien, who is really Chat Noir, and—" The room started to spin. She paused, rubbing her temples with a frustrated groan. "God, I need a drink. Or some coffee, I guess, since I'm not legally old enough to drink. This is just too much to think about."

Suddenly Nino was struck with inspiration. "How about a distraction?"

She turned to face Nino, letting her hands drop to her side as she tried to gauge what he was thinking. His expression was one she'd never seen him make before, a strange mix of amusement, admiration and — was that affection? No, it couldn't be. She had to be imagining things. They were just friends, nothing more.

"Like what? I'd love one, but what do you have to say that could possibly be huge enough to distract me from— hey, what—mmph!"

Nino yanked her close and cut her off with a quick, hard kiss. It couldn't have lasted more than a couple seconds, but it was enough to shock her into silence. "I love you," he said quietly before turning around and walking away, leaving her standing there, dumbfounded, lifting one hand to touch her still-tingling lips.

Just as he was about to leave the room, he paused and tossed her a self-satisfied smirk. "How's that for a distraction?" Then he turned and speed-walked away, knowing she wouldn't take long to snap out of it. Sure enough, before he reached the end of the hallway, a shriek rang out.

"NINO LAHIFFE! Get your butt back here and EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"

He ran.


End file.
